Bill Weinberg - LinuxPundit.con 

Now that the Google/Android SDK has hit the streets and some of the dust has settled, we can begin to assess the particulars and peculiarities of the new platform.

And now, a brief digression into late medieval history.  Fourteenth century Franciscan monk and philosopher William of Occam is credited with formulating the principle of Lex Parsimoniae - the law of parsimony, a.k.a. Occam's Razor:  Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem - "Entities ought not be multiplied beyond necessity".  

While Brother William was concerned with needlessly complex scientific and/or theological explanations, his timeless reductionist advice is equally well applied to mobile software platforms and the organizations that promote them.  Doubtless he would have expressed monastic disdain for the current state of mobile Linux in general, and of Google/Android in particular. 

Occam’s famous razor would have been most busy slashing at this odd attempt to fight fragmentation with yet more fragmentation.

Razor Slash I – There is nothing new under the Sun. Google/Android is only the latest in a long burgeoning line of Linux based mobile platforms.  Entia nonne necessitatis?

Razor Slash II – Android is not really a new Linux-based platform per se, but a yet another Java-based platform running over Linux.  In that regard it joins both Motorola MOTOMAGX and Sun JavaFX Mobile.  Does the world need three Java-over-Linux platforms?

Razor Slash III – Android isn’t really built on Java™, coffee cup and all.  Instead it integrates a Java-like virtual machine called “Dalvik” (huh?).  Dalvik-ese is supposed to be newer and cleaner than actual Java, but seems to stem more from Google and OHA’s desire to sidestep Sun’s Java licensing regime.  As if mobile Java weren’t already fragmented enough.  Does the world need another Java-like language?

Razor Slash IV - Standards bodies and consortia can be great social orgaizations, and they can even accomplish what no single member might do alone. However, the more .orgs a money-making establishment joins, the fewer meetings will that company attend.  Of the 34 launching members of OHA, perhaps five will actually pursue the OHA agenda and perhaps one dozen will attend actual meetings.  The rest are in the game for PR and/or self-defense.  Is this a good use of corporate resources?

Razor Slash V – While OHA members have apparently all taken an anti-fragmentation oath as part of their membership incantation, Android is sufficiently incomplete (mini TAPI, few/no native APIs, applications?) that swearing aside, OEMs and operators will be forced to finish the job, fragmenting just to make Android nominally useful.  Hopefully Android will grow to fill these gaps.

Razor Slash VI – Android seems to embrace the Free in FLOSS more than the Open in Open Source.  Android and its presumed derivatives exist because they can exist, not because OEMs and carriers really want the platform.  Open Source would be much better served if an entity of Google’s stature put its weight and stature behind existing projects and initiatives instead of forking new ones.